Scientists have recorded beautiful songs of bowhead whales

Examining "song repertoire" of the Spitsbergen population of bowhead whales, the scientists were surprised by its diversity.

Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) inhabit the Northern hemisphere, it is the only species of baleen whales that spend their entire lives in the Arctic cold waters. It is because of such harsh environmental conditions difficult for scientists to observe them all year round.

Oceanographer Kate Stafford of the University of Washington in Seattle, USA and her team investigated the Spitsbergen population of bowhead whales in 3 seasons in a row since the beginning of October to end of April in 2010-2011, and 2012 to 2014. Vocalizing whales were recorded on the hydrophone located at a research station of the Norwegian polar Institute, located between affinova land and Greenland. During this time, the Svalbard population is "performed" 184 songs — the biggest variety of songs recorded in the cold season, in December and January.

Most of the songs were sung for hours, and sometimes days, but rarely longer than a month, and only a small part is repeated throughout the season, reports the portal N+1. The whale song is the sounds of different frequencies and amplitudes combined in a phrase, average duration is several minutes.

Bowhead whales are considered contenders for the title of longevity among mammals. Although their average age is about 40 years old, some studies suggest that individuals lived to 100-211 years.

In addition to bowhead whales, vocalizations inherent humpback whales — their songs consist of topics, which in turn are built on phrases of sounds. For several years the structure of the songs can change, and sometimes the whole repertoire of brushes. Interestingly, humpback whales can paste snippets of the new songs in the old, mixing them, wherein each population has its own special set of songs and can change them with other populations.

Stafford noted that the diversity and often changing the songs, in addition to whales, found in some species of songbirds and other animals constantly perform the same "repertoire".

Scientists conducted an interesting analogy, comparing the songs of humpback whales with classical music, and the songs of the harp — jazz. Such a comparison due to the more free-form, and also with different type and set of songs every year. How to explain it, the researchers do not yet understand. Although they suggest that populations may be other whales from the West or East with his songs, it can't explain why every year the songs change.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»